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In a wide ranging interview with HipHopDX, Black Rob talks about his time in prison, his past run-ins with the law, publishing issues (mentioned in a new track "Delusional") and more. He also confirms that, as of two days ago, he is no longer under contract with Bad Boy Records.

HipHopDX: I just gotta start off by saying that “Delusional” , that s*** goes hard… Now, you know I gotta have you elaborate on that second verse… “How this dude got my publishing checks in a tight yoke…Wrote contracts up that’s designed to leave you broke…”

Black Rob: I don’t want nobody to get [any] misconceptions that I was talking about Puffy. I’m not talking about Puffy. See, when I signed to Bad Boy [Records] I was already [in a production] deal with [someone else.] We [had] already signed a contract that was designed to [basically] invest in him my whole career – a publishing check, a recording contract. So, it’s not Puffy. Puffy ain’t got my publishing checks in a tight yoke, Puff got the publishing that I gave him [from] the initial signing of the contract. [But], Puff ain’t got my publishing checks, it’s this Ray Roterio dude that we’re looking for, [but] we can’t find him…[In the song when I say] “the mirrors and the smoke was fooling the town’s folk,” that’s [about] Bad Boy. I just wanna make it clear. ...

DX: I understand that Puff wants you back on Bad Boy?

Black Rob: It was something spoke about it like that with the Vice President of Bad Boy, [Harve Pierre], myself and Puffy on the phone. But, Puffy’s doing what he’s doing right now with all these other artists. So, I’m not gonna try to take a backseat to none of these artists that ain’t selling no records. Ain’t none of them selling more records than me. None of ‘em sold more records than me, so I’m not gon’ take a backseat to none of them dudes. None of them n***** is better than me. I don’t care how many records you make my man.

I'm a big fan of Black Rob. I have bought his music, multiple copies of it in some cases. But, there is something seriously wrong with this statement. Black Rob's first album, "Life Story" was a great album. It went platinum. Going platinum in 2000 is probably akin to selling 250,000-400,000 records today. It had a big hit in "Whoa," which peaked at 43 on The Billboard Hot 100. That was the only record to hit that chart, from the album, album that spawned four music videos. It was a successful album, credit to everyone involved. There are many reasons Black Rob sold that many records. It wasn't just because of Black Rob.

Fast forward to 2005. Black Rob's second album, "The Black Rob Report" comes out. The album sells poorly. A big reason for that? Black Rob is locked up when it's time to promote the record. As such, only one music video is shot for it. Essentially, between his two albums, you have a little over a million in record sales in the U.S., most of which came in 2000.

Diddy is probably the only artist signed to Bad Boy that has sold that many records (of course, he's sold much more). But, more than anything else, that's because most of the artists signed to Bad Boy are new, relatively new or being developed and their albums were released farther into the digital age than Black Rob's were. Like I said, a million back then is like 250,000 to 400,000 now. It's a different world.

Confidence can be a great thing, but when you've negatively impacted your own sales because of your own personal indiscretions and are just coming out of prison, it may be necessary to take a back seat to those who have been working while you were locked up.

Thanks Theo for the tip.